There are an almost endless number of biscuits recipes, each with their own tips and tricks for improving different elements of the baked good, but ultimately they're all after the same thing: a flaky, burnished biscuit that comes out of the oven buttery and tall. That height, the way the dough puffs up and creates flakiness and layers, is often an indicator of a great biscuit. But it's difficult to know exactly what contributes to that stature. If your biscuits aren't reaching the great heights that you'd like them to, these five tips will help you get there.
Don't overwork the dough.
When it comes to isolating elements that help build height in a biscuit, how you work the dough is probably the most commonly overlooked. With tender pastries like pie crust and biscuits, you're trying to develop as little gluten as possible in the dough, which keeps your treats from becoming tough. Working with very, very cold ingredients is helpful, as is working quickly to make sure the heat from your hands doesn't melt the butter.
Many home biscuit makers are looking for a uniform dough. (An understandable instinct). However, your biscuit dough should be uneven and barely stay together — that's what will help create those airy pockets of buttery goodness.
Embrace stacking.
In biscuit-making, height and flakiness go hand in hand. Why? Because the layers of butter that get compressed and stacked as you build your biscuits are what create those flakey biscuit bits, and they also create steam in the oven — which helps the biscuits to expand as tall as possible.
Most biscuit recipes will tell you to fold or stack the dough in on itself once or twice, rolling it out in between stacking. If your favorite recipe isn't yielding the height that you'd like to see, consider adding an extra fold or two, which will create more layers. I've found that four folds is a good number: Any more than that and the biscuits can actually get too tall and flop over onto their side.
Go for clean cuts.
Whether you're making round or square biscuits, be sure you're using a knife or biscuit cutter, and that you're not twisting as you cut. It's important to create a clean cut that won't smoosh those outside layers onto one another, as that will bind the layers together and inhibit the puffing that creates height.
Bake them close to each other.
Often in baking, recipes will instruct you to place items far enough away from each other that they won't touch. Biscuits are an exception to this rule: Placing them close to one another on your baking sheet actually helps them push each other up, as they impede each other from spreading outward and instead puff up skywards.
Keep the oven hot.
When baking buttery treats like biscuits, the key is to bake them at a temperature where the water in the butter turns quickly to steam. This steam is a big part of how the biscuits achieve their height, as it evaporates up and out. Be sure your oven is fully preheated (depending on your recipe, you'll be looking at a temperature between 425 and 475 degrees Fahrenheit), and use an oven thermometer to make sure the temperature inside the oven is the same as the one the oven display says.
Finally, resist the temptation to open the oven part way through baking. Doing so will let a significant portion of heat out and can cause your biscuits to fall. Instead, keep an eye on them through the window in your oven, and wait to take them out until they're bronze, flakey and sky-high.
The biggest tip for creating tall and flaky biscuits is to put the biscuits in the freezer for 15 minutes before baking them. Once they are on the baking sheet, just pop the whole thing in the freezer.
When baking buttery treats like biscuits, the key is to bake them at a temperature where the water in the butter turns quickly to steam. This steam is a big part of how the biscuits achieve their height, as it evaporates up and out.
The two keys to success in making the best biscuits are handling the dough as little as possible as well as using very cold solid fat (butter, shortening, or lard) and cold liquid.
HEAT oven to 350°F (or 325°F for nonstick cookie sheet). PLACE biscuits 1 to 2 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheet. BAKE 13 to 16 minutes or until golden brown.
But if you chill your pan of biscuits in the fridge before baking, not only will the gluten relax (yielding more tender biscuits), the butter will harden up. And the longer it takes the butter to melt as the biscuits bake, the more chance they have to rise high and maintain their shape. So, chill... and chill.
The secret to the best biscuits is using very cold butter and baking powder. We've made a lot of biscuits, but this easy biscuits recipe is the one we turn to the most (they are so fluffy!). See our easy drop biscuits and cheese drop biscuits for even easier biscuits.
Once the dough is in the oven, the water in the butter evaporates, creating steam, which causes airy pockets to develop between each layer of dough and, in turn, a flaky pastry once fully baked. Folding a biscuit or pie dough mimics this process.
Just as important as the fat is the liquid used to make your biscuits. Our Buttermilk Biscuit recipe offers the choice of using milk or buttermilk. Buttermilk is known for making biscuits tender and adding a zippy tang, so we used that for this test.
Place the pan of biscuits in the refrigerator while you preheat your oven to 425°F, or for about 20 to 30 minutes. This short chill will help them maintain their shape while baking.
By folding the dough you create layers of those fat pockets and flour. When the homemade biscuits bake, the fat will melt and steam will push apart the layers of flour to create flaky layers. To fold the dough, you want to gently pat the dough down and fold in half.
“Short,” in a baking context, means that there is a high proportion of fat to flour. This is usually just applied to non-yeast doughs, by the way; you won't see references to a “short” challah dough or brioche, for instance. Usually these short doughs are very rich, crumbly, and tender with butter.
You can add cooked sausage, cooked bacon, scrambled eggs, cheddar cheese, or any combination of these or other breakfast favorites. After that, place the tops on the biscuits and seal down the sides. Bake for around 20 minutes, until the biscuits are golden brown.
Throughout our years of biscuit making, 3/4 of an inch has been shown to yield the perfect height in a biscuit. Now that you have all the knowledge for the perfect biscuits, we hope your baking experience is made easier this year and that it yields the best results possible.
Turns out when you put supremely cold or frozen dough in the oven, “it causes the water in the butter to evaporate more quickly,” said Fields. “When water evaporates it goes up, as steam, so it takes all the structure [of the biscuit] with it.”
Introduction: My name is Dan Stracke, I am a homely, gleaming, glamorous, inquisitive, homely, gorgeous, light person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
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